Roberto Fiorentino MBA’22 Cooks Up Babson Class Spirit
One of the reasons Roberto Fiorentino MBA’22 decided to go to Babson College was because he heard the professors and entrepreneurial thought leaders liked connecting with students and were generous with their time.
Fiorentino, recently named to Poets&Quants’ list of the 100 Best and Brightest MBAs for the Class of 2022, quickly got a chance to put that understanding to the test.
“I invited a professor to my house to have lunch, and I decided to cook. Of course, I burnt everything I was cooking and I had to make it all over again,” Fiorentino said. The charred chicken triggered alarms throughout his house, adding another level of chaos to the mix. Luckily, Fiorentino said, the professor was late and missed most of the burnt mess.
“I love that you can have these kinds of funny stories at Babson where the faculty connects with students, and they’re willing to be a part of our lives,” Fiorentino said.
Babson Pride
Fiorentino grew up in Peru and had worked at Grant Thornton and a private equity firm before he came to Babson. He also was the CEO of an e-commerce billing platform and co-founded a social project focused on improving child nutrition in Peru.
He always had planned to get his MBA, so Fiorentino applied to Babson and quickly embraced the College’s spirit of collaboration while learning.
“I could always relate with Babson’s values, like fostering innovation through diversity and inclusion,” he said. His enthusiasm made an impression, because the Best & Brightest MBAs list is reserved for students who best exhibited their school’s values while representing the voice of their peers.
“I could always relate with Babson’s values, like fostering innovation through diversity and inclusion.”
Roberto Fiorentino MBA'22
“He has been a terrific MBA student and community-builder here at Babson College,” Keith Rollag, a management professor at Babson, wrote when he nominated Fiorentino.
Not only has Fiorentino been a leader and top contributor, he became a focused class representative.
“I saw him in action soliciting input and ideas from classmates, and representing their interests and concerns to academic services and administration,” Rollag wrote. “More importantly, he has been a part of the ‘social glue’ that has made our Class of 2022 cohort such a tight-knit, supportive group.”
Soccer Spirit
Fiorentino has a roster of stories about the time he spent with the Babson community at large, but one of his favorites is the incredible bond built among his fellow soccer teammates and the team’s loyal, stalwart fans.
Fiorentino played semi-professional soccer in Peru, and he quickly put together an MBA graduate soccer club of men and women students at Babson.
“We trained them, we got the team to improve a lot, and we had a lot of fun. Toward the end of the MBA, we played in an MBA tournament against colleges like Harvard, MIT, and Columbia,” Fiorentino said. “During every game, we had between 20 to 30 Babson students there cheering and waving banners for the team.”
The players from the other colleges took notice.
“They were like, ‘We can’t even get our girlfriends to come see us play,’ ” Fiorentino said. “I think that summarizes what Babson is.”
Fiorentino enjoyed the community so much that he decided to stay. He will start work on his Master of Science in Business Analytics in the fall.
“When I took the one-year MBA course, I figured if I liked it I could go for a second degree,” Fiorentino said. “So, I’ll get a chance to take advantage of all the additional resources while learning more about data analytics.”
Posted in Community
